Thursday, July 19, 2007

I'm in Phoenix waiting for a weather delayed plane back to Los Angeles. I was in Montreal and Detroit this trip.

While I was waiting I wrote back to about 50 people who'd written me up to 2 years ago. I really don't know how to keep up with the correspondance I get. Apologies to all of you out there with burning questions who've been waiting ages for replies. What you need to do is get enough people to buy my damned books that I can quit my paying job and sit around answering e-mails all day.

While in Montreal I experienced both an isolation tank and one of those sound & light machines that are supposed to produce instant meditation "deeper than a Zen monk." So all of you crumb-bums out there who told me I couldn't say anything about that stuff unless I actually tried it can bite me.

And by the way, the "you can't criticize it unless you try it" argument is total bullshit. I have a reasonably good idea that dog shit does not taste like chocolate without ever doing a blind taste test.

Anyway, I'm writing up my research for Suicide Girls. Watch for it soon.

Plus GO SEE MY GOSH DARNED MOVIE next Wednesday July 25th at 7:30 PM at the Egyptian Thetare in Hollywood, Californy. Do it. You must. Or I'll beat you up.

15 comments:

Anonymous
said...

The isolation tank thing might give a hint to very confused people that it is actually possible to be something different a non-stop personality and evaluating creation brain. But it's the same as with similar experiences with drugs, there might be *slightly* comparably *initial* hints for few people but you will connect these hints or experiences to the machine or drugs.

The worst thing is that Buddhism doesn't stop with what is hinted at, it actually doesn't even really start in my opinion. Those infamous "mystic experiences" are just a very obvious delusions.

I once tried a "Relexation center" thing where you lay down, get some flickering light glasses, some automated massage stuff and weirdo trance music and that is supposed to be relaxing or mediation like.

No, Anonymous, I don't say those sound & light machines are crap. I say the claim they are the same as Buddhist meditation is crap. The same as I say the claim that dogshit tatstes like chocolate is crap.

Crap is crap. Chocolate is chocolate. My experience with tasting chocolate and merely smelling dogshit gives me the authority to say the comparison between the two is unsupported.

Anyway, I'm tired & listening to the Sonic Youth Daydream Nation re-ish. Which is no condition to discuss Buddhism with an unidentified person on the Internets.

"I really don't know how to keep up with the correspondence I get. Apologies to all of you out there with burning questions who've been waiting ages for replies. "

You could make it your policy not to reply to any e-mails at all, only to the hand written snail mail. Anyone who bothers to use that archaic method deserves to get a reply. No one expects you to reply to every blog post, so why even try responding to every e-mail. People can dash off a quick e-mail questions while looking over internet tofu recipes or looking up mysterion's endless links. Sending you an e-mail is just too frigging easy. You could reply by sending back an auto-generated e-mail saying something like -

thanks for your interesting question, the answer’s in my book which is available here..

Each man's expression represents the predominant attitude of the religion: Confucianism saw life as sour, in need of rules to correct the degeneration of people; Buddhism saw life as bitter, dominated by pain and suffering; and Taoism saw life as fundamentally good in its natural state.

“ From the Taoist point of view, sourness and bitterness come from the interfering and unappreciative mind. Life itself, when understood and utilized for what it is, is sweet. That is the message of "The Vinegar Tasters". ”

One can meditate in the four postures of sitting, standing, walking, and lying down. If one practices Zazen alone, one will initially progress only during Zazen because the mind is not so stilled at other times. Walking meditation, since the time of Buddha, has both physical and mental health benefits. The Buddha and his disciples used walking meditation regularly.

The primary example is the Buddha’s Walk in Jeta’s Grove in Sravasti. This Walk is near the Buddha’s residence (Gandha-Kuti). Anatha pindhika. Buddha’s Noble Disciple had this Walk made for the Buddha at the time he built the temple. The Walk stayed buried until the British Government had the ancient remains at Jeta’s Grove restored.Kinhin is a slow walking.